The present invention relates to integrated circuit manufacturing, and more particularly to distribution of circuit programming items.
Wireless communication systems, such as the Bluetooth standard, allow portable electronic devices to locally interact. However, to be distinguishable among multiple devices capable of receiving a transmission, each device typically has a unique identification number hardwired into its transceiver integrated circuits. Thus as part of the manufacturing process, an inventory of identification numbers must be available to be programmed into the integrated circuits. For Bluetooth, identification numbers are 48 bits long and blocks of 1M identification numbers can be purchased from organizations such as the IEEE.
Analogously, other systems require unique identification numbers such as integrated circuits with high-definition content protection (HDCP). Manufacturers typically program these identification numbers at the time of circuit testing (wafer probe or package test) and the programming involves electrically blowing fuses within the circuit or programming an EEPROM. Thus identification numbers should be readily available at any of possibly multiple testing sites with multiple testers at each site.
Additionally, an integrated circuit manufacturer's various customers (device vendors) may want their integrated circuits programmed with customer keys such as customer (or user) identifications and security features such as keys for DES and RC4 encryption systems. Customer keys are stored for use in integrated circuit manufacturing, although DES and RC4 keys typically are encrypted for secure storage and need to be decrypted at time of programming.
A single integrated circuit manufacturer with multiple testing sites and, possibly, with affiliated foundry manufacturers for the same products will thus have a problem of management and distribution for integrated circuit programming of unique identification numbers and customer keys required by multiple customers.